On one hand, Novartis should be congratulated on their efforts to put an oral chelator into the hands of those who previously have not had access. It is another thing to price it out of reach of most patients. If it ended there, we could accuse them of nothing more than being a tease. However, when they simultaneously begin to withdraw the alternative chelator, desferal, from the market, leaving many patients with NO chelator, it goes far beyond tease and becomes a serious moral issue. First, and Novartis is more than aware of this fact, not all patients can tolerate exjade. Novartis, please tell us what to do about patients who cannot use your drug and patients whose ferritin levels are too high to make exjade a practical chelator. Second, even with this greatly reduced cost, compared to the west, the cost is still far out of the reach of most patients.
Exjade as one option is fine. Exjade as the only option, is not. Novartis, please correct this major flaw in your planning.